We spent a week in Colorado on our way home from Nebraska to Arizona, splitting our time between Manitou Springs and Monument where we stayed with friends (plus a few days to drive home). We arrived in Manitou Springs in the late afternoon and checked into our hotel, which was in a great location close to downtown. We walked downtown to have a meal before visiting Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is one of the most popular attractions in the area and visiting later in the day helped avoid some of the crowds. Plus visiting in the early evening offered a little respite from the ridiculous heat of the week. We first stopped at the visitor center to look at the exhibits and then went across the street to do some easy walking around the park. We parked in the main parking area to walk the Central Garden Trail that visits most of the main rock formations in the park. We enjoyed our stop here - pretty scenery!

The next morning I was up early to hike the Manitou Incline. Not sure why I thought that was a good idea, lol, but it seems to be one of the things to do while in Manitou Springs. A free reservation was required and to avoid the heat, I made a reservation for 6 am. I was able to walk there from our hotel, so I didn’t have to worry about parking. The Manitou Incline was built in 1907 as a cable car to supply construction of a nearby hydroelectric plant and waterline. Not long after it was converted to a tourist attraction and remained in operation until a rock slide damaged the track and it was closed in 1990. The rails were removed and the ties remaining formed a staircase that locals started using for workouts. It became officially legal to hike the incline in 2013. The hike gains 2000 feet in elevation (starting at 6500 feet, ending at 8590 feet) in just under a mile. Yes, that is steep! It’s 2,768 steps with an average grade of 45% and as steep as 68%. Once at the top I used the Barr Trail to descend, which was about three miles. It was definitely a workout - the views were a nice excuse to stop and look around. I took it easy the rest of the day as Norah and I played tourist. We walked around downtown, did old time photos, and took a tour at Cave of the Winds. We finished the night with several hours at the Manitou Springs Arcade.

Our second full day was spent in Cripple Creek before heading to our friends’ house in Monument. We kicked the day off with an excellent tour at the Mollie Kathleen gold mine, billed as the only vertical shaft gold mine tour in the US. The mine was discovered in 1891 and was the first claim to be struck by a woman in the Cripple Creek and Victor gold camp. The mine operated until 1961 when it became a tourist attraction. The tour starts with a ride in a man-skip elevator down 1000 feet. Our guide was excellent and the tour was very informative. The mine still had operational mining equipment that our guide demonstrated and we got to ride a tram air locomotive through a drift. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the tour based on the website or what we saw when we arrived, but we really loved it.

Next we drove down the road from the mine to Cripple Creek for a train ride on the Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad. The ride is a 45 minute, four mile ride on a locomotive typical of the early day steam engines. The track goes south of Cripple Creek past historic mines and terminates near a deserted mining camp before returning back to Cripple Creek. Honestly, the train ride was anticlimactic after the terrific mine tour, although it was nice to see some of the landscape and old mining artifacts and learn about the mining era. On our drive to Cripple Creek we saw signs for a gem and mineral show in Victor, so we decided to head there after the train to find a bite to eat and check out the show. It wasn’t very big, but there were some great vendors and we spent a lot longer than we anticipated at the show (although I should not have been surprised - we are total suckers for a rock show!).

Our day ended with tacos, margaritas, and catching up with our friends. It was great to see friends, especially after our Covid hiatus. We had more time to enjoy their company the next day when we went hiking at Red Rock Open Space, had a picnic, ice cream, and another dinner at home with lots of chatting. Unfortunately, it was time for us to leave the next day, but not before we had waffles and another short hike. We stayed one final night in Cortez and then it was home for a few days before we were off to California for Steve to run Western States.